Geek Girl in Hollywood: In praise of revivals, like 'Gilmore Girls'

Jenna Busch

Bringing back old shows — or films, or books — means letting us catch up with old friends.

Thank god Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) are back.

Saeed Adyani, Netflix

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First let me say this; I have never watched “Gilmore Girls.” I know, I know. Even when you write about entertainment for a living, sometimes there are holes in your knowledge. I know fans are passionate about it, and I’m sure I’ll marathon it at some point. When I heard about the revival, however, it made me happy. I know not everyone is on board with these, but I am. It’s like visiting long lost friends. You may not like where life has taken them, or what happens after you reconnect, but there is a hole that is filled, even when those friends are fictional.

I’ve always felt like this. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been an avid reader. When one of my favorite authors, Anne McCaffrey, went back to a series, "Dragonriders of Pern," she’d left alone for a while, I felt like a parched desert dweller who was given a glass of water.

I get attached to fictional characters. We all do. We invest hours and hours in their lives and relationships, sometimes more than we do with real friends. In a way, sometimes we connect to them even more, as we watch them go through the same things we have, without the pressure to help them fix things. We can observe how they handle it, and compare it with what we’ve done. When it’s something we haven’t gone through, we can consider how we would handle it, if something similar happened to us. In a way, it’s almost a more intimate relationship than a real-life friendship because it shows us ourselves in a true light.

Whether or not I liked the “X-Files” revival, I was desperate to know what happened to Mulder and Scully. I, like many of you, wanted to be a part of their lives again. It’s for the same reason that I read all of the continuing comic book adventures of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I spent my formative years learning from these characters, battling with them and watching their relationships wax and wane.

When I think of that time period of my life, or discuss it with friends, they always come up. Similarly, when I think about my childhood, characters like Lessa or Menolly from the “Pern” series are right there in the background. Hell, I’d give anything (and I know I’m not alone here) to see more of what happened to the “Firefly” gang, though the loss of Ron Glass, who played Shephard Book, means that I will never get that chance.

So keep bringing back our old favorites, in addition to giving us new characters to care about. Huzzah to the “Gilmore Girls” revival for letting fans in on what happened in their fictional lives, and for reminding us of where we were the last time we saw them.